My favorite social media profile these days is one called
Condescending Corporate Branding. It satires how major brands manage their
Facebook pages. The philosophy is simple: In social media, brands treat people
like they’re idiots, and most people don’t seem to mind.

The beauty of Condescending Corporate Brand is how they
share photos posted by major multinational brands. Of course none of these
posts has anything remotely in common with what the the brand sells. Which is
why they’re so absurd.

The bigger question in all of this is: why are brands doing
this? The reason is simple. Brands on social media have chosen to measure their
success through metrics that have nothing to do with the brand or its business.

Brands on Facebook focus on “engagement.” That means that
you want as many people responding to your posts as possible. The solution for
doing that is formulaic

Get as many followers on Facebook by any means
possible.

Post anything that will get likes or comments.
Pictures of cats, for example.

Now, this strategy might be smart if you’re Pet Food
Warehouse. But for anything else, it seems like a complete waste of energy. I’m
waiting for the data that shows that liking stupid stock photography increases
sales.

I think brands do this for a number of reasons. Truly
integrating your business into social media is hard. It takes work and internal
change is very difficult. Finding pictures of cats or waterfalls on
Shutterstock is easy (and cheaper).
Getting lots of likes and interactions looks good on monthly reports.
When you show the marketing director and senior management those numbers, they
fell pleased, even proud, that they’ve been so smart to approve the social
initiative.

Smarter brands, though, are looking more closely at how
social impacts the business. For example, American Eagle added a Like button
next to every product on its site and found that Facebook referred visitors
spent and average of 57% more money than non-Facebook referred visitors. I’m
betting the referral wasn’t a cute picture of a Mom and a kid.

One of the biggest drivers for brands missing the focus and
opportunity here is that Facebook itself is the biggest influencer in promoting
Likes and Engagement. That’s really the main currency Facebook has; when it
sells itself to brands, it’s selling Likes and Engagement metrics. Unsophisticated
consumers that they are, brands and marketers snap this up faster than TV
viewers snap up Sham Wows.

The other big driver, in my opinion, is the reliance on
social media agencies to run big brands social presences. The outside agency
will never have the internal, on the ground intelligence that you get from
working within a company. The relationship itself makes it impossible for the
vendor to push for meaningful social business inside the company. Instead,
social agencies take the easy way out, getting clients hooked on Likes and
Engagement and then feeding that habit through fill in the blank posts and word
puzzles.

Someone once said: to change your vision of success, change
what you measure.

That’s why every social marketer should be watching
Condescending Corporate Branding Facebook page. All social marketers should
pledge to do the opposite of what you're seeing there.

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Are you buying what Facebook is selling?

My favorite social media profile these days is one called
Condescending Corporate Branding. It satires how major brands manage their
Facebook pages. The philosophy is simple: In social media, brands treat people
like they’re idiots, and most people don’t seem to mind.

The beauty of Condescending Corporate Brand is how they
share photos posted by major multinational brands. Of course none of these
posts has anything remotely in common with what the the brand sells. Which is
why they’re so absurd.

The bigger question in all of this is: why are brands doing
this? The reason is simple. Brands on social media have chosen to measure their
success through metrics that have nothing to do with the brand or its business.

Brands on Facebook focus on “engagement.” That means that
you want as many people responding to your posts as possible. The solution for
doing that is formulaic

Get as many followers on Facebook by any means
possible.

Post anything that will get likes or comments.
Pictures of cats, for example.

Now, this strategy might be smart if you’re Pet Food
Warehouse. But for anything else, it seems like a complete waste of energy. I’m
waiting for the data that shows that liking stupid stock photography increases
sales.

I think brands do this for a number of reasons. Truly
integrating your business into social media is hard. It takes work and internal
change is very difficult. Finding pictures of cats or waterfalls on
Shutterstock is easy (and cheaper).
Getting lots of likes and interactions looks good on monthly reports.
When you show the marketing director and senior management those numbers, they
fell pleased, even proud, that they’ve been so smart to approve the social
initiative.

Smarter brands, though, are looking more closely at how
social impacts the business. For example, American Eagle added a Like button
next to every product on its site and found that Facebook referred visitors
spent and average of 57% more money than non-Facebook referred visitors. I’m
betting the referral wasn’t a cute picture of a Mom and a kid.

One of the biggest drivers for brands missing the focus and
opportunity here is that Facebook itself is the biggest influencer in promoting
Likes and Engagement. That’s really the main currency Facebook has; when it
sells itself to brands, it’s selling Likes and Engagement metrics. Unsophisticated
consumers that they are, brands and marketers snap this up faster than TV
viewers snap up Sham Wows.

The other big driver, in my opinion, is the reliance on
social media agencies to run big brands social presences. The outside agency
will never have the internal, on the ground intelligence that you get from
working within a company. The relationship itself makes it impossible for the
vendor to push for meaningful social business inside the company. Instead,
social agencies take the easy way out, getting clients hooked on Likes and
Engagement and then feeding that habit through fill in the blank posts and word
puzzles.

Someone once said: to change your vision of success, change
what you measure.

That’s why every social marketer should be watching
Condescending Corporate Branding Facebook page. All social marketers should
pledge to do the opposite of what you're seeing there.